


The Unexpected Benefits of Tree Climbing

by predilection



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7769035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Koda convinces Prince Phillip to have some fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unexpected Benefits of Tree Climbing

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place directly after episode 11 (the episode in which Phillip is first introduced as a character).
> 
> I wrote the first draft of this fic in October 2015. I had to re-write parts of it multiple times which is why it's being posted ten months late.
> 
> Also, this fic explains how Phillip learned the rangers' names.

It was hard for a prince to get time to himself, so it was a wonder that Phillip had managed to arrange this at all, even if one of his most loyal and trusted bodyguards followed him at a distance.

Phillip was to meet the rangers -- and he still couldn't believe that he was saved by actual power rangers -- in the outskirts of Amber Beach in a park thick with trees. He didn't even know what they wanted from him, but he owed it to them to show up. He told his bodyguard that he was meeting old friends, even though it was ludicrous that he would be meeting friends in such a place.

Phillip spotted them in the distance. He identified Sir Ivan immediately, and then his eyes were drawn to another man: the man who was wearing blue -- the man who had saved his life -- the man whose name he didn't even know.

The man was standing apart from the others at the base of a tree looking upwards. He also happened to be the closest to Phillip. Phillip walked towards him. 

The man must've heard him coming, because he spin around to face Phillip, his body coiled like he was expecting an attack, but then he recognized Phillip and his whole body relaxed. He grinned and waved in Phillip's direction.

"Mean prince!" he called out happily as Phillip approached him. Phillip winced. He deserved that, but still.

"Hello," Phillip said formally and he immediately felt even more awkward. He still didn't know the man's name.

"We waiting for you," the man told him, gesturing with his thumb towards the clearing. "I take you."

The man started to walk away, and Phillip knew that he was expected to follow him. 

The man treated him informally but for some reason, that didn't upset Phillip nearly as much as he felt it should.

"What's your name?" Phillip finally asked as he fell into step behind the man.

The man huffed like he was amused. "Koda," he said. "You not know my name?"

Phillip sighed. "I don't know any of your names. Except for Sir Ivan, of course."

"Oh," the man -- Koda -- said, frowning. "I introduce you."

When they got closer to the others, most of whom were huddled around some sort of device, Koda stopped in his tracks and then held his hand out to stop Phillip from proceeding. Before Phillip could ask why they were stopping, Koda turned to him and grinned mischievously. "They not notice us yet. Want to play prank?"

Phillip blinked at Koda in confusion. "What?"

"See Chase over there?" Koda asked, pointing at a man sitting away from the others under the shade of a nearby tree. His back was to them, but Phillip could tell that he was wearing headphones and poking at his phone. "At lunch, he took meat out of bronto burger and laugh when I bite into it and find nothing there. I want prank him back."

"You want to prank Chase," Phillip repeated slowly.

Koda nodded. "He call it 'prank war'. You help?"

"You want _me_ to help?" Phillip asked, gesturing at himself and his designer three piece suit. He raised a sceptical eyebrow in Koda's direction. 

Koda's grin got wider. "Yes!"

No one had ever asked for Phillip's help to pull a prank on someone before. And they were wise not to. Pranks were beneath people of status like himself. 

But Koda didn't seem to understand that. Koda didn't seem to care about social standings, Phillip's included, at all.

"Alright," Phillip said and he could feel his eyes go wide in shock as the word left his lips. That wasn't what he meant to say.

Koda didn't seem to notice his surprise. He led Phillip to the base of the tree the Chase fellow was sitting under -- Chase didn't appear to notice them at all -- and began to climb the trunk. Koda paused about four feet from the ground to look down at Phillip and ask, "You climb?"

The last time Phillip had climbed a tree, he had been ten years old, and he had been scolded for it. He was told by his minders that princes, even young ones, weren't supposed to do such things.

Phillip looked up at the tree before him. There were low branches and small footholds in the trunk that made it ideal for climbing. He also knew that there was no way he could get away with climbing the tree without scuffing his leather shoes beyond repair.

He turned to look at his bodyguard who was keeping his distance, but still in sight. He wondered what he would think of Phillip if he actually decided to climb the tree.

"You coming?" Koda asked, startling Phillip from his thoughts. He was sitting on a branch, peering down at him.

Phillip tried not to mourn his eight hundred dollar shoes as he placed one onto a foothold and reached up to grab the nearest branch. He hoisted himself up the trunk easily and soon he was sitting on a branch just below the one Koda had claimed.

"Now what?" Phillip asked.

Koda pointed down to where Chase was sitting. "Jump down and surprise him!"

"That's your prank?" Phillip asked, and he could hear how unimpressed he sounded. 

"Two days ago, Chase draw vampire on bathroom mirror to scare me," Koda explained. "Yesterday, he hide fridge. Today was worst! He ruin burger!" Koda raised his chin, met Phillip's gaze and said determinedly, "Tyler says I scare him I when jump from tree. Now I will scare Chase!"

"Isn't this a tad mean?" Phillip asked.

Koda sounded amused as he replied, "Then perfect prank for mean prince to help with!"

Koda's comment startled a laugh out of him.

Suddenly the reality of Phillip's situation hit him. Somehow, he was sitting in a tree in a suit with a man who wasn't even wearing shoes when they first met. He should be furious. At the very least, he should be mortified. 

Instead, he was actually enjoying himself.

"On three, okay?" Koda said and shimmed down his branch until he was in position above Chase. Phillip slid down his own branch until he was closer to Koda. "One," Koda said and Phillip looked down at the drop below him. It was maybe ten feet.

"Two," Koda said, and Phillip wondered if he would actually go through with this and jump out of a tree to play a trick on someone he didn't even know.

"Three!" Koda said. Phillip hesitated, but Koda jumped, dropping down right in front of Chase.

Chase immediately jumped three feet into the air. He landed on his arse and clutched at his chest. He ripped off his headphones, scrambled to his feet and yelled "Koda!" Then he started laughing and Koda did too. 

Chase put his hands on his knees and caught his breath. "I deserved that," he said.

Koda used this as an opportunity to look up at Phillip and gesture for Phillip to jump. Something about the sound of Koda and Chase's laughter and the encouraging look in Koda's eyes made what was left of Phillip's reluctance fade.

Chase straightened. "You really got me good--" Chase began to say just as Phillip jumped and landed directly in front of him. Phillip heard Koda whoop in delight as Chase, once again, startled into the air. This time though, Chase shrieked.

Chase found his footing and then stared at Phillip. Phillip only dimly recalled what Chase normally looked like, but it definitely wasn't this -- his eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth opening and closing like a fish. He looked absolutely ridiculous.

He seemed to be having trouble processing that a prince had just jumped out of a tree to frighten him. Phillip was struggling to process this as well, but watching Chase try was decidedly hilarious. 

Koda pointed at Chase began to laugh, and Phillip couldn't help it -- he started to laugh too. 

Their commotion seemed to get the attention of the other rangers who soon surrounded them. The others, including Sir Ivan, seemed confused to see him standing there, but their focus was on Chase.

"We heard you yell. Are you okay?" asked the man in red who Phillip remembered was the red ranger. 

Chase was still blinking at Phillip. "Uh," he said. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that... Koda jumped out of a tree and scared the living daylights out of me and then..." He trailed off, continued to stare at Phillip and then shook his head as if to clear it.

The man in green -- he was the green ranger, and Phillip realized belatedly that they were they all color-coded -- raised an eyebrow at Chase. "After what you've done to Koda lately, you probably should've expected him to retaliate."

"Admit it," the pink ranger said, walking over and nudging Chase in the side. "You totally deserved this."

"It's not that," Chase said. "It's just..." He pointed at Phillip.

"Prince Phillip," Sir Ivan said, stepping in front of him and bowing. "When did you arrive?"

"I only just did," Phillip said.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Chase said, his voice getting louder. "He arrived when he _jumped out of that tree with Koda!_ "

"What?" the green ranger asked. He looked at Phillip skeptically. "Come on, Chase. There's no way someone like him would do such a thing." He seemed to catch what he just said and added, "Uh, no offense, your highness."

"I didn't say it made any sense!" Chase exclaimed. "I'm just telling you what happened!" 

They all turned to look at Phillip then, eyebrows furrowed with disbelief.

Jumping out of a tree was so far outside Phillip's normal behavior that he didn't know what to say. Just when he was starting to feel like he should be embarrassed and perhaps defend himself, Koda threw an arm around his shoulders -- like no one had ever dared to do before -- and said excitedly, "Mean prince help me prank Chase back!" 

"No way," the pink ranger said, though she seemed to be noticing the scuff marks on his shoes and the state of his suit. Then she stared incredulously at what seemed to be the top of his head, and he reached up and pulled a leaf from his hair.

Aware all their eyes were still on him, Phillip threw the leaf away, cleared his throat, and explained, "Koda recruited me to assist him in his prank war." 

Sir Ivan, Chase and the other rangers looked like they were about to fall over in shock. 

Suddenly, Koda was laughing again, except this time he was leaning against Phillip as he did so, his arm still slung over Phillip's shoulders. As the others continued to gape at them, Phillip found himself laughing for the third time in five minutes. He laughed at the disbelieving expressions they wore on their faces and also at himself for getting involved in such absurdity.

He laughed so hard that he almost doubled over and it felt like a release -- a kind of catharsis he hadn't allowed himself to experience in a long, long time.

When both he and Koda stopped laughing and pulled apart, he noticed that everyone was still staring at him but that now they looked even more shocked for some reason. "What is it?" Phillip asked. 

The red ranger said, "It's just. We didn't think you were..."

"Capable of having fun," the pink ranger finished for him and then winced. "Sorry."

Phillip was pretty certain that "fun" was not a word anyone associated with him. He stared down at his hands. He had dirt under his fingernails. "I'm not sure I knew either," he admitted, stunned.

Koda placed his palm against Phillip's chest right above his heart. Startled, Phillip looked up. Koda smiled at him and said, "Way you laugh sounds good. Comes from here." He gently patted Phillip's chest twice. "You need laugh more."

Phillip wasn't sure how to respond to that. He stared down at where Koda's hand was pressed to his chest. The back of Koda's fingers were smudged with mud, and he, too, had dirt under his fingernails. His hand looked out of place against the crisp linen of Phillip's vest, and even a week ago, Phillip would've pushed such a hand away in disgust. Now, he found himself smiling at Koda, feeling lighter than he had in ages.

Koda treated him differently than anyone else he had ever known and that didn't seem like such a bad thing. If anything, it felt liberating to be treated like a person instead of a prince.

Koda was still smiling as he pulled his hand back, his eyes bright with delight. "I promise introduce you," he said, reminding Phillip of their earlier conversation, and began introducing Phillip to the other rangers.

Phillip was with them for over an hour after that. When he left, it was with their names, information on a project they wanted his help with, and a warm feeling in his chest.

"How did your meeting with your friends go?" his bodyguard asked him later, when they were back in the limo. 

Phillip studied a large scuff mark on his left shoe that started at his heel and extended along the outer side. It didn't bother him like he had expected it to. Instead, he thought of it as a memento from a surprisingly enjoyable afternoon. "It went well," he replied sincerely.


End file.
